Do you operate in the English market and want to reach Poles living in England? Pick whichever platform you’re on, set your ad to all Poles in the country, add your standard content, translate the ad content and watch the customers flow in… Well, not really. There are currently around 700,000 Poles living across the UK (figures as of the second half of 2021). It’s a group as heterogeneous as the British – people of different ages, interests, needs, mentalities and consumer behaviours. So how do you target them to increase your chances of success? Here are our tips!
Table of contents:
- Effective segmentation is half the battle
- A/B testing of advertisements is something not to be missed
- It is better not to economise on market research
- Remarketing is a marketer’s best friend
Tip 1 – Effective segmentation is half the battle
Following the principle “if something is for everyone, it is for no one”, it is always worth implementing precise segmentation where we are dealing with a large number of potential customers. What does this mean? It means that in order for your ads to be really effective, you need to divide your budget into several, sometimes a dozen different groups of recipients. Let’s assume that you run a network of language schools and you want to advertise English classes among Poles in England. Will the same message addressed to a 50-year-old woman who came to England to provide cleaning services have the same impact as in the case of an 18-year-old who plans to study here? The answer is that both the ad creative, the copy, the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and the advertising platform itself should be different. In most cases, it is better to reach 5,000 perfectly matched recipients with a precise ad than with a generic ad to 20,000 dispersed recipients.
The most effective methods of microtargeting ads to Poles in England:
- Age (for a product aimed at people of different ages, divide the audience into at least three age groups).
- Place of residence (this is especially true for businesses operating locally).
- Education (may be correlated with wealth).
- Precise interests (e.g., specific brands, places, restaurants, social media profiles they follow).
- Life events (different adverts will appeal to a mother of three and a young party-goer).
- Travel (it is sometimes useful to take into account how long people have been in England, and it is usually a good idea to exclude people who are only passing through).
- People who follow the brand profile (they will respond more quickly to your promotions; on the other hand, for image campaigns, it is worth excluding this audience).
Tip 2 – A/B testing of ads is something not to be missed
Does precise targeting of ads to Poles vs. England work in every case? Of course not. Sometimes it happens that ads targeted very broadly get better results. However, in order to know this, you should test it beforehand. With every new campaign, it’s always a good idea to test at least two types of target groups: narrow and wide. What’s more, it’s also great practice to test different ads at the creative level itself. Often, a photo that worked for a similar group among people of other nationalities will not necessarily work for Polish expats.
Although we have been running social media ads campaigns for brands operating on the UK market for many years, we always test each ad. The results can sometimes surprise many a seasoned Internet marketing expert. Especially that who a “typical” Polish expat is, is changing all the time.
Tip 3 – It is better not to economise on market research
If a business has a sufficient budget, we always suggest commissioning market research before working on an advertising strategy. Owners often think they know their audience perfectly. Eventually, it turns out that all they know is that they are… Polish. Poles living in England are a very specific group of customers: they do not fit into the characteristics of Poles living in Poland, nor do they resemble native Brits. They are a unique blend of two different cultures, ways of life and shopping habits. Ignoring this fact is a serious mistake that could cost you hundreds, if not thousands of pounds.
Although there are many common denominators among Polish expats in the UK (e.g., a tendency towards conservative views, reluctance to test novelties, nurturing towards family values, criticism towards brands or attachment to native Polish brands), potential customers in your industry may differ significantly from the general “pattern”. Instead of guessing, it is better to know all the data and only on its basis create a strategy – both of communication in social media and social media ads.
Tip 4 – remarketing a marketer’s best friend
In our experience, well executed remarketing is a powerful weapon in the hands of a social media marketer. With remarketing we are able to reach with almost 100% accuracy people who are potentially interested in products or services of a given company. For this reason we always suggest directing all ads to separate subpages dedicated to the offer directed to Poles.
An interesting and quite effective practice is to divide the advertising budget (and the whole campaign) into two stages. In the first stage we focus on ads in the AdWords search engine, directing people who have typed in a given keyword to the target page (it is worth setting key phrases in both Polish and English here – Poles in England often use them interchangeably). The next stage of the campaign is to target Facebook or Instagram ads at people who have found their way to the website via a Google ad. A further step might be to create ads targeting a “Lookalike Audience”, but… that’s a topic for another article.
Need a Polish social media agency to support your business in advertising to Poles in England? Get in touch with our experts. We have been working with British brands for many years, helping them to effectively reach their potential customers from Poland!